Salmon on the Rough Edge of Canada and Beyond”

“Salmon on the Rough Edge of Canada and Beyond” “Welcome Home” By Matt Foy Brunette River Chum Salmon, Burnaby, BC, Canada (Photo Courtesy Joe Foy) Living in the economically vibrant and fast developing Lower Mainland of south-western British Columbia one might think that our natural resources such as the iconic salmon are soon to be just a distant memory. But contrary to common belief, here on the West Coast salmon continue to survive. Sometimes they thrive and even once in a while, surprise. If given just half a chance with safe passage home, clean water, some shade from an overhanging tree, unimpeded access through waterways, a patch of gravel to lay their eggs in and a bug or two to eat, these species will refuse to leave us. They remain with us because they have always been part of us. They have been with us since time immemorial when the first peoples walked in the shadows of the receding glaciers. Salmon led the way to new valleys and lands. They fed us and supported us as we went forward into the future. We are salmon people. Salmon have always been celebrated in stories along the entire west coast of Canada and in countries around the Pacific Rim. Even today new stories of these iconic species can make us pause and respect their ability to survive within the new human dominated world they now must exist in. The Lower Fraser Valley supports one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in Canada. This region is home to over 2.5 million people. It provides economic opportunities to both residents and new arrivals alike but the requirements of this economy put pressures on the finite natural areas that salmon need to thrive. Yet even in this fast-changing environment salmon continue to refuse to give way. The lower mainland of BC continues to be home to millions of spawning salmon each year. Salmon have evolved to quickly take advantage of suitable habitats as they become available. Salmon have successfully dealt with ice ages and can survive us with a little consideration. While it can be relatively easy to push salmon out of a portion of their habitat, if given a decent chance they can recover and come back to their ancestral homes. This is a message that needs to be repeated, over and over and over again. The small, local stories of the salmon’s ability to recover lost glory can inspire salmon people around the world to attempt great things. The Beauty in Chaos Chaos theory is the field of study in mathematics that studies the behavior of dynamical systems (such as global weather) that are highly sensitive to initial conditions—a response popularly referred to as the “butterfly effect”. The Butterfly Effect: This effect grants the power to cause a cyclone in the Philippines to a single butterfly flapping its wings in Costa Rica. It may take a very long time, but the connection is real. If the butterfly had not flapped its wings at just the right point in space/time, the cyclone would not have happened. A more rigorous way to express this is that small changes in the initial conditions lead to drastic changes in the results. Our lives are an ongoing demonstration of this principle. Blue Morpho (Photo Courtesy Tony Hisgett) I would argue that human behavior can act in somewhat similar fashion. The power of simple ideas has been shown over and over again to be able to change the course of human history. We know that it is our actions that are the greatest threat and the greatest hope for many species survival-including species such as salmon. Recently, a delegation of salmon restoration experts from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, based out of Vancouver, Canada were invited to north-east China to share their ideas and experiences with restoring salmon populations. For those not aware the Heilongjiang-Amur River basin, shared between China, Russia and Mongolia was the greatest Chum salmon river the world has ever seen. At the beginning of the twentieth century, over 40 million Chum salmon are believed to have returned each year to this one of the world’s great river basins. By the end of that century these great runs to the Heilongjiang (Black Dragon) River were but a faint reflection of their past abundance. In the last couple of years or so, a China based salmon restoration group (Salmon Ecological Environmental Protection Association -SEEPA) has formed with aspirations to recover the salmon legacy of China. I do not know why this group chose to reach out to Vancouver based experts, but I would like think the idea was helped along by stories such as those below. I like to think this because there is great comfort in the idea that simple local acts of kindness toward our fellow species such as salmon may indeed have the potential to change the extinction curve for salmon in other rivers around the Pacific Rim. This can be a powerful and motivating force for all those who dare to dream of restoring salmon in their own back yards and neighbourhood streams. So, in the spirit of doing great things for the world, I embrace the chaos theory and would propose the addition of the “Salmon Effect”. The Salmon Effect: With a sweep of a single salmon’s tail in a little stream in East Van, an idea is born that salmon recovery under the most difficult conditions is possible. This simple idea inspires a cascade of hope, passion and commitment in people working to restore salmon in rivers all around the Pacific Rim. This increased effort for positive change leads to success in making what was once lost, to be found. Glory comes to those that strive to make the world whole again, abundance, abundance, oh sweet abundance. Chum salmon (Photo Courtesy Bob Turner) November 5, 2013. CBC News Vancouver, Canada. - “Chum salmon make a miraculous appearance in East Vancouver- Return to Still Creek for second year running after an 80 Year absence.” Chum salmon are spawning again at an urban creek in the heart of East Vancouver. The salmon returned this week to Still Creek, which sits in a ravine surrounded by warehouses and a nearby SkyTrain line. The creek — running into Burnaby and through pipes to the Brunette and Fraser rivers — was once one of the most polluted streams in the province, thanks to urban garbage, sewage and toxic chemicals. According to area resident Carmen Rosen, last year was the first time in 80 years salmon had spawned at Still Creek. The return of this small group of salmon, into the urban neighbourhoods of a modern Canadian metropolis, after almost a century of absence, resonated around the world and deep into the heart of China. The idea that salmon recovery could be possible, against such long odds, captured the imaginations of all those who would dare to dream. November 8, 2013. South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, China. The salmon, scarred and exhausted, swim slowly around each other as they near the end of their final journey. Hook-jawed males snap at each other as they joust for position alongside female fish, which thrash on their sides in the shallows to clear a spot in the gravel bed in which to deposit their precious eggs, before dying. It's a poignant scene that has played out in countless wildlife documentaries. But the backdrop to this drama is not some remote Canadian wilderness. These chum salmon are spawning in the heart of metropolitan Vancouver, for only the second time in at least half a century... “They’re Chum salmon” As a knot of people stood quietly huddled under a grey sky along the banks of a small channel that flowed between the industrial and commercial buildings of East Vancouver, other workers on their lunch break, some in business attire, some in coveralls, were slowly walking in ones and twos from the nearby film studios, warehouses and retail offices to see if it was true what they had heard and read. This was the uppermost section of Still Creek in the fall of 2012. This watercourse began its life where it emerged from an underground series of culverts and pipes that collects groundwater from headwater springs and storm water from properties and catch basins in the neighbourhoods of East Vancouver. “What type of salmon are they?” asked the guy in the cool runners the lady said. For the first time in living memory, Chum salmon had found their way into this small stream and were actively spawning in full sight of the people that had come to witness this unique event. No one present would have likely known the journey these fish had taken to regain their lost ancestral spawning grounds. No one present would have likely known the stories and hard work of the people that had persevered for decades to see such an event unfold. All that mattered was that salmon had returned there and it moved people deep inside. Still Creek, flowing downstream from the City of Vancouver, enters Burnaby Lake which itself discharges into the Brunette River. It then flows downstream through the urban areas of Burnaby, Coquitlam and New Westminster before finally discharging into the Fraser River. The Brunette River Watershed (80 km2) contains some of the most heavily urban impacted streams in south-western British Columbia and has a long history of intensive industrial and residential development. Still Creek and the Brunette River were dredged and channelized. Each had a series of rock weirs installed which denied salmon access to areas upstream, and the outlet of Burnaby Lake was dammed (Cariboo Dam) in the very early years of the twentieth century.

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